AJ Styles Talks Being “Held Down” By TNA, Turning Down WWE

Speaking to AllWrestling.com, AJ Styles gave his take on the six-sided ring, the wrestling dirt sheets, religion in wrestling, the IWC, the new creative team and more. The sixty-minute interview is available here.

On being held down: “I think if you ever give me the ball, I’ll score. But you have to give it to me. I have to play my part as well, I am a company guy. We all wrestle together, we entertain together and we all make money together.

On James Storm
“I can see he is doing what James Storm does best. Guess we will find out where it all leads.”

On TNA’s Twitter push
“I like to get on there and associate and connect with my fans. See what they want. If they don’t like the fact that I wore gloves on the PPV then let me know. I’m trying something new. I see nothing wrong with that, I think it’s something new.”

On storylines in wrestling
“You have to admire how it is done. It was pretty unique and I haven’t seen anything like that before. Storylines need to continue you know. Bobby Roode is one of the best champions in a long time. He has it all.”

On his match with Ken Anderson against Kazarian and Daniels
“I haven’t been this happy about a match in a long time. I think it was outstanding. I think it was one of the better matches of the night. I’m so proud of Ken. We wrestle such a different style than Ken and for Ken to be right there toe to toe with us right along, right on time is super impressive.”

On slowing down with age
“We, things hurt a little bit longer than they used to. As long as I can get in there and go to work. I know some guys have said that I’ve slowed down since I was in the Ring of Honor or whatever other indy I was in. That’s just working smarter, psychology. It’s about finding the right time to do something and making it special.”

On his promo to Jeff Hardy
”You know I spoke to Jeff about that. To be honest, I was pretty upset over that. I take a lot of pride in this company. I’ve put my body, my life, my livelihood for this company. But that has been totally squashed and he is kicking major butt right now. He is in great shape and he is in mentally great shape.”

On seeing more submission wrestling lately
“Ever so slightly there are some guys throwing in some submissions. I threw a flying amber ever once in a blue moon. I wish I could do that more but it doesn’t seem to be the case in some of my matches.”

On the new creative team of Bruce Prichard, Dave Lagana and Matt Conway
“Well, Matt Conway, I’ve been working with him. Lagana, I’ve actually communicate with him a lot and Bruce as well. I think the fact that we have been able to communicate is a plus. The lack of communication is what screws things up. Without that you can’t see their vision for what they want. You end up with two different pictures for the same thing.”

On being offered a WWE developmental contract for $500 a week and turning it down
“I could tell you what would have happened. Literally 3 months later, WWE pulled their developmental. I’m sure they would have just dumped my contract.”